Bullseye!
2024 has barely gotten out of bed yet, but one person is already dominating all the headlines.
If you don’t know his face, you’ll know his name. Or vice versa.
That Luke Littler lad has been absolutely everywhere.
If you haven’t spotted him yet, just take a little trip through your Twitter or Instagram or Facebook feed right now.
Scroll past the photo collages of our 2023 promotion party. Go beyond the Stockport fans back-pedalling on the declaration they would go unbeaten until April. And swipe a little further down from that viral video of a guy (who sounds a bit like a Wrexhamer) tricking a Stone Island coat seller into sending videos of themselves throwing punches and headbutts in their hallway.
Soon enough, you’ll stumble across a clip of Littler placidly hurling pointy objects at a big round board with precocious accuracy, met with rapturous applause. Aged just 16, he’s already plying his trade alongside the best darts players in the world. And his incredible run to the final has gotten everyone excited in a way that only great sports stories can.
Indeed, it’s quite fitting that Littler is dropping neatly into our social media feeds alongside all the usual footy content. Not all Reds will share the same enthusiasm for kebabs and Xbox as this Cheshire teenager, but we do know what it’s like to be the overnight sensation that everyone is suddenly talking about.
Ever since signing on the dotted line, our transatlantic chairmen have strived to mould Wrexham into an entity that’s as easy to cheer for as a young underdog; Ryan has reached out to rival teams to praise their performances, whilst Rob has even tried to build bridges with trolls who’ve spent months hurling insults at him across cyberspace.
https://x.com/RMcElhenney/status/1741206715650232813?s=20
It’s hard to resist a good sports story - especially when it’s being told by two compelling narrators like RR McReynolds. And The Wrexham Revival proved to be a real page-turner right through to the end of 2023.
An eventful festive programme for the Reds had started at Swindon - a town best-known as the place David Brent did everything he could to avoid. But nevertheless, nearly 1,500 Wrexhamites travelled there of their own volition on Boxing Day.
Choosing to take a 300-mile round trip to the nether regions of the Cotswolds when you could be enjoying a dressing gown day in front of the tele seems like a dumb decision to the average man. And indeed, whilst hundreds of lucky souls back home were kicking back with a plate of Xmas bubble and squeak in front of the fire around 11am on 26th December, the Red Army’s foggy-headed, full-bellied, travel-weary Boxing Day brigade were panicking at Britain’s most bewildering junction and then wandering blindly through wintry, insipid streets in search of ale and shelter.
But it was all vindicated in the end. After a sweet strike from poppy sceptic James McClean bagged us three points, not even Swindon’s putrid terrace toilets - which made the Glasto long drops look like en-suites in The Ritz - could dampen the atmosphere.
Once the win was sealed, most of the babble coming from the Arkells Stand consisted of two main questions.
First: “Ya have a good Christmas, la?”
Second: “Ya goin’ Shrewsbury?”
A pandemic of cup fever seems to have infected the whole of Wrexham ahead of this Salopian Sunday tie - and many of us managed to forget we actually had to play twice in the league before heading to Shropshire.
Our players momentarily missed that memo, too - slipping up on a Birmingham banana skin and succumbing to a 3-1 defeat in our final tie of 2023 in Walsall.
Given that this was just our seventh loss in about 70 league fixtures, there was no need to hit the panic button. And whilst there were some palpable jitters when Barrow opened the scoring inside a minute in our next match, we needn’t have worried. This Reds team are like a flock of Cumbrian seagulls targeting tourists carrying trays of hot chips - their appetite is insatiable and they simply won’t piss off, no matter how many times they’re batted away.
By half-time, our ravenous Reds had helped themselves to three goals and there was no way back for Barrow. The only sight better than Fletch’s NYD hat-trick was Pele’s kiss-the-badge celebration - which suggested he’d hadn’t been on Skyscanner checking flights to Riyadh after all.
A big victory over a promotion rival like that ought to be savoured like a fine wine, but within seconds of the final whistle, the talk turned to Shrewsbury once again.
Understandable, really. Claiming a scalp over Salop will right some historical wrongs dating back 16 years, and most importantly of all it would give us a shot of reeling in a big fish in the following round.
If all goes well on Sunday, it could be one of the most enjoyable chapters of The Wrexham Revival story yet - particularly for the border-hugging Reds who have endured more than a decade of mockery from their rural neighbours.
In the meantime, Luke Littler will continue to pop up all over your social media in the coming weeks and months - appearing in various videos, memes and images as the hype around him rumbles on. Darts’ new hero will be omnipresent online for as long as people enjoy strange and exciting sports success stories. And by that same logic, Wrexham AFC won’t be going away anytime soon either.
There’s a few more weird and wonderful pages for us to write in 2024 yet. Starting with Salop (A).
Here’s to another wild year…